Metamorfose (Metamorphosis) (2018)

Grieg, Johansen, Nordheim, Sommerfeldt, Olsen

Frida Fredrikke Waaler Waervagen

Ever since I was very young, I have heard that I showed early signs of a love of classical music. At the age of six, I stood in the living room at home and conducted a recording of Bach’s entire Christmas Oratorio, using Mama’s choral score, and when the album ended I said “that was pretty good, let’s do it again”. My older sister began playing violin when I was two years old. It was difficult for me not to “steal” it, and so we decided that I too should be permitted to take lessons. But although I was four, the violin teacher thought I was too small. Fortunately, Horten Music School called a year later to say that the cello teacher could take a young pupil.

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Frida Fredrikke Waaler Waervagen

Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen is a Norwegian cellist with a long and impressive list of accomplishments. She began lessons at Horten Music School at age five. In 1998 she was accepted at Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, where she studied for six years with Professor Aage Kvalbein. Frida Fredrikke studied with Professor Truls Mørk at the Norwegian Academy of Music, completing a Bachelor’s degree in the spring of 2011. She has also studied with Professor Frans Helmerson. In the spring of 2014, Frida Fredrikke completed a Master’s degree following two years of study with Professor Torleif Thedéen at Edsberg Castle, Royal College of Music, in Stockholm.

Prizes and scholarships Frida Fredrikke has won, both nationally and internationally, include: International Competition Young Musician in Tallin, Estonia; the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition in Porec, Croatia; Arve Tellefsen’s Music Award; RWE Dea Music Scholarship; the Järnåker stipend; and the Wessel Prize awarded by the Norwegian Society. She has made her mark as a soloist with orchestras at home and abroad, including Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Norwegian Navy Band.

Upon completion of her Master’s degree, Frida Fredrikke began as solo cellist with the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra in Stockholm. She is now a freelance cellist based in Oslo and is in frequent demand as chamber musician and substitute principal cello with Norwegian orchestras. Frida Fredrikke appears regularly as cello soloist, and she serves also as principal cello in the string orchestra Ensemble Allegria. Since the autumn of 2016 she has been on the faculty of “Musikk på Majorstua” as lecturer in cello, and she performs at Norwegian schools with her programme “Aleine med tankane” under the auspices of “Kulturtanken”.

Frida Fredrikke plays a Nicolas Lupot cello from 1823, kindly lent to her by Dextra Musica.

photo: from cover 'Metamorfose'

Ingrid Andsnes

Ingrid Andsnes (born 1978 in Karmøy, Norway) is a highly accomplished pianist and one of Norway's most endearingly passionate musicians. Her love for music is just as inspiring as her joy in performing is striking.

In 2015 she released her debut solo album, the monumental Diabelli Variations by Beethoven and Diabelli Cadenza, written by the Norwegian composer Lars Petter Hagen. She received huge acclaim from international critics and audiences, including the New York Times. With this masterpiece as a springboard she performed in her Carnegie Hall debut the same year, receiving a standing ovation.

Ingrid has performed as a soloist with several Norwegian Orchestras, among them the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and in 2010 she recorded Mozart’s piano concerto no. 12 with the Telemark Chamber Orchestra.

In collaboration with a number of Norway's finest musicians, such as Solveig Kringelborn, Arve Tellefsen, Håvard Gimse and the Norwegian Soloist Choir, Ingrid Andsnes has made a remarkable contribution to concert life, both nationally and internationally. Being a popular festival musician, Andsnes has contributed at the largest classical music festivals in Norway, including Festspillene i Bergen, Ultima in Oslo, Oslo Chamber Music festival, Olavsfestdagene, Nordland Musikkfestuke and the Hardanger Music Festival.

In recent years Ingrid Andsnes has also enjoyed exploring the pianist’s role outside the traditional boundaries of classical music. She has performed Ørjan Matre's “Duet for solo piano” – a work for piano and contemporary dancer – written especially for her. In 2013 she contributed to the play “33 Variations” by Moisés Kaufman, staged at Det Norske Teateret in Oslo, where she had a major role performing music from the «Diabelli variations». She often collaborates in contemporary music projects, working with composers such as Marcus Paus, Julian Skar and Lars Petter Hagen.

Ingrid has studied with Professor Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and with Professor Jiri Hlinka at Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. She has won both national and international prizes, among them the Janácek Prize at the Firkušný Competition in the Czech Republic in 2003. Norway has awarded her several prestigious scholarships, among them a three year endowment from the Norwegian State's Artist Fund.